Let's do some simple math (before you run away, know that I failed in math in school). If you work 9 hours a day (corporate, school or college), sleep 8 hours a day, eat 1 hour a day, work out 1 hour a day, poop and shit 1 hour a day (if you are pooping for an hour, better get to the doc real quick), you still have 45+ hours every week to yourself, assuming you don't work weekends.
Pyper lets you in on these 5 incredibly successful social media phenomenons who started off micro-influencing as a side hustle. Something to do as a hobby along with a full time something else. And with 45 hours at your disposal, guess who's stopping you from getting your side hustle on? YOU.
Danielle Bernstein
She has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, has 1.9 Mn Instagram followers and has her own fashion label. In short, Danielle is not your average 26 year old. She did start out as a very average 18 year old who had just been transferred from University of Wisconsin, Madison to FTT, New York. As a college sophomore (2nd year student) with full time regular classes, she started making time to pen her fashion blog We Wore What.
In her own words "I was blown away by the difference in how girls dressed for school. I wanted to provide my friends at Wisconsin that daily source of outfit inspiration, so I bought my first camera, taught myself how to use it, and began photographing street style around campus."
Success was not immediate, nope. It was only after a year that big brands started noticing her as a fashion influencer. She is outspoken and reveals that she made upwards of 7 figures last year by collaborating with brands like Seven for All Mankind and Splendid. Easy to say, this influencer is here to stay.
The Points Guy
Brian Kelly is the most unlikely travel influencer. Ever. He was working full time as a campus recruiter in Morgan Stanley when he started blogging about how to use credit card points to get near-free vacations and travel plans. The name of his blog was, you guessed it, The Points Guy.
He had no idea that his "side hustle" would become a multi million dollar powerhouse of a business. In fact, he is very open to admit that he became an influencer quite by chance. Now his website has over 5 million unique visitors every month and he partners with the biggest credit card companies such as Bank of America, American Express and plenty others.
Brian shares 3 quick tips for people who are working full time and keen to start off as an influencer. Inspiration is hard to come by in an internet full of shit, but this guy is the real deal.
a. Take every meeting - you need only one big break
b. Set boundaries - hustling on the side is not easy, take care of your health and family
c. Create consistency - you can never reach perfection in the beginning, simply focus on creating high quality content
Huda Beauty
Huda Kattan has to be the most phenomenal success story in recent years when it comes to make-up and beauty. Born to Iraqi parents and raised in Tennessee, USA, Huda was struggling to find direction in life after she graduated with a Finance degree. Her sister suggested her to enroll into make up school and that seemed to change her life forever.
Later on when she moved to Dubai with her husband, Chris Goncalo, she started a small make up blog because she genuinely liked penning down her ideas and thoughts about all the different brands and products out there. That one blog started garnering so much of attention that it evolved into her own Youtube and Instagram channels where she started creating make up tutorials.
While still dabbling with the blog, Youtube and Instagram, she started creating make up for fun (false eye lashes, mascara etc.) With an initial loan of $6k from her sister Alya Kattan, she launched her eye lashes and it instantly was lapped up across beauty stores such as Sephora. From then on, it has been a fairy tale ride where we have seen how Huda Beauty has evolved to become the mammoth brand that it is today ($250 mn sales in retail last year).
She has some rock solid advice for ambitious people who want to follow the same path - "Always start small and fail quick. Learn and start again."
Pew Die Pie
Heard of Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg? Unless you are also a nerd like me, you would probably be scratching your head now trying to figure out why I would even ask you such a question. Well that's because Felix from Gothenburg, Sweden, who is better known as Pew Die Pie is the biggest Youtuber on the planet. As of October 2018, his channel has 66 million subscribers (WTactual F!). He is mostly known for his gaming videos where he tests out different video games and provides funny, real and humorous reviews.
So how did Pew Die Pie start off? Well for one, during his first year, he had registered his small Youtube channel where he uploaded videos whenever he got time. Soon, he dropped out of industrial design course in University of Gothenburg, much to the dismay of his parents (Sharma ji ka bete ko dekha?). He began to solely concentrate on his Youtube career (did you know it could be a career?) and to make ends meet he started working in a hotdog stand.
Cut to today and his present earnings are somewhere estimated to be $90 Mn. That's right folks, let that sink in. Does Youtube provide all the money? Nope it doesn't. While it provides a substantial amount, Pew Die Pie endorses a lot of the video games he genuinely likes and these companies pay him in return for being their brand ambassador on social media (that is the exact concept of Pyper and we got you your back). From a small side channel to a millionaire, this guy has seen it all.
Jennifer Tuffen
Jennifer Tuffen, also known as Izkiz is a British content creator and blogger who has seen massive success on Instagram. Originally from UK, her childhood was spent in the Greater Amsterdam area and she now divides her time between UK, Netherlands and the idyllic coast of Turkey. Guess what got her interested to instagramming and blogging in the first place?
Her iPhone 3 GS which she bought about 6 years ago and went on a holiday.
She started off small on Instagram like everybody else, but quickly found an extremely loyal fan base because of her photography skills. In the beginning, she had to get used to balancing a full time job with her new found passion. Her content is bright, vivacious and downright drool worthy. Being raised on exotic family vacations, this was just the break her inner wanderlust needed.
She says that she has never felt the pressure of adding on more and more followers, especially with increasing competition. She has been lucky to have loyal followers who still inbox her to this day stating that they have been following her since the time she had 5k followers. The trick, according to Jennifer is to be really involved with something that you like. For her, that is creating amazing content and partnering with brands she loves.
Takeaway
If you think you don't have time for a side hustle, think again. All these people (anybody who has built himself or herself from the ground up) have done it and there is no reason why you can't. If you like, just get out there and do it. As Nike says,
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